Thoughts on Abortion

I'm really scared to post this, so I'm doing it anonymously. I mistakenly posted this same topic to the wrong group, and got a whole lot of hate. I deleted it once I discovered my mistake, but people were still harassing me. I ended up deleting my glow account and made a new one because I really liked this community... so here's what got me in trouble:

Feel free to disagree with my opinions, but you can't argue with facts. If you notice that any information here is incorrect, please let me know and share your sources. I will also leave my own sources so y'all can research for yourself. 

Abortion is defined as "the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy; most often occurring during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy." By this definition, a miscarriage is not an abortion. Sometimes, a miscarriage is referred to as a "spontaneous abortion," which means that the fetus was terminated naturally without any outside interference. (Source: medlineplus.gov) Just to make myself clear, when I say "abortion," I mean when an outside influence either chemically induces abortion or when a developing fetus is removed. 

Now, let's talk about pregnancy. This may seem obvious, but abortions can only happen when you are pregnant. This means that birth control is NOT used to abort a pregnancy, it is just meant to prevent it. This includes "morning after" pills, because that do not work once the egg is fertilized. (Source: webmd.com/drugs/levonorgestrel/details) Once the sperm has fertilized the egg, you are pregnant. Some argue that this is the point where the fetus becomes its own person and has a right to life, but I'll get to that later. Once you are pregnant, if you willingly terminate the baby in ANY way, you have had an abortion. 

Now probably the biggest argument for abortion is "MY BODY, my choice," "I have a right to abort because it's MY BODY." Well… is it really your body? Here's a quick anatomy lesson:

In all my years of medical biology, I have never once counted a fetus as a part of the female anatomy. Here is the basic idea of conception:

A simple part of one human being (ex. a sperm) and a simple part of another human being (ex. an occyte or egg) to create a single celled Zygote. (Source: princton.edu "When do Humans Begin?)

A Zygote is created when the sperm penetrates the egg and unites its nucleus with the nucleus of the egg, which then creates a whole new cell with its own genetic information and a complete set of chromosomes. 

In other words, once the sperm penetrates the egg, an individual, genetically unique, HUMAN BEING is created. This is not pro- life nonsense, this is scientific fact! (Source: study.com/lesson/zygote-definition)

This means that whether the abortion takes place after a week of fertilization, or 8 months, you are ending the life of an individual human being. 

Feel free to study up on anatomy and tell me if I've been taught incorrectly for almost 4 years. 

So I guess you're partly right. YOUR body, YOUR choice. But it isn't your body! 

However, you do have a choice. That choice isn't to keep or abort the baby, it's whether you choose to have sex or not. This is where the terrifying idea of personal responsibility comes in. 

Here are some facts about sex:

-it can lead to pregnancy 

-it can cause STDs and other infections

-protection (condoms, birth control, etc.) can help prevent these things, but they  don't work 100%

If you did not know these things, you should not be having sex. 

If you do know these things, let me tell you something. If you are making the decision to have sex, you are making the decision to possibly become a mother. There is no way around it. 

This doesn't necessarily mean that you want a child, but you need to be prepared for it to happen (and so does the father, men are just as responsible for the child as you are). This means that if you know that you can't handle having a child for any reason, you shouldn't be having sex! If having sex is so important to you that you'd risk getting pregnant, you have to deal with that CHOICE. 

Here is my new pro-choice slogan:

Your body, your choice, your consequences!

I would also like to say that everything I said above applies to men as well. 

If you decide to have sex, you need to be ready to become a father. Children are not just a women's responsibility, and if you can't take on that responsibility don't have sex. If you're not ready to be a father and commit to your child (and hopefully the mother) for the rest of your life, don't have sex!

Going back to science, by definition, the zygote I just mentioned is created by a sperm and an egg. The egg is part of the female reproductive system, and the sperm is part of the male reproductive system. So if your fighting for "the rights of your reproductive system" and "gender equality," then it would only make sense to fight for the male reproductive system as well. Even though we have already established that scientifically, the fetus is it's own person, one could argue that the father has just as much ownership as the mother does. Meaning, it is still not just "your body, your choice," but it's HIS body, HIS choice as well. 

But as I stated before, the baby is it's own person, and has its own right to life. I'm just pointing out a major flaw in the pro-choice logic. 

And for those of you who think that women don't have reproductive rights, think of this:

Abortion is legal in America. It is legal for a woman to terminate her own pregnancy if she wishes, but abortion requires no consent of the father (he does have the right to be notified of the abortion). How is this "equality?" This could also go the other way. What if the father wants an abortion and the mother doesn't? What then? 

Well we go back to this simple fact:

The fetus is its own person. It is illegal to kill outside to womb, but why not inside? 

(Sources: family.findlaw.com/paternity/fathers-rights-and-abortion & Planned Parenthood vs. Danforth)

Another important topic to address is rape, incest, and the safety of the mother. Here are some facts and theories on these topics:

-There are some theories that during rape (or a traumatic experience), a female reproductive system could spontaneously abort or not be able to conceive at all. This is just a theory, and I personally can't find enough evidence to believe it. Feel free to research this subject and share it in the comments! 

-The amount of rapes that lead to pregnancy in the U.S is about 5%

(Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

-there has only been one major study of pregnant rape victims, and 75-80% of these victims chose not to abort. 70% of these women believed that abortion would be another act of violence against their bodies. 

(Source: pregnantpause.org/aborted/curerape)*

*this is a really great article, I don't care if you're pro life or pro choice, please read it!

-Some women have reported abortion feeling like "a degrading form of medical rape."

(Source: The Ambivalence of Abortion by Linda Bird Francke)

-Less than 1% of abortions are performed to save the life of the mother. This rare occurrence is usually due to a fatal illness (cancer or leukemia) that the mother suffers from and abortion would be unlikely to prolong or save the mothers life. 

(Source: Dr. Guttmacher, Planned Parenthood)

I have my own personal opinions on rape incest, etc. but I want to hear other people's opinions. Mine is fairly simple: "The solution to rape is not abortion. The solution to rape is stopping rape." 

… and these are my thoughts on abortion. Congratulations if you made it all the way through my rant… I tend to ramble… 😬